He'll also have basically his whole bullpen ready to go, except maybe Wheeler (who could probably pitch, but they'd probably rather him not) with the off day Friday. If Shields lost game 5 then Kaz came back an lays another egg (I'm convinced he's hurt, so I can't blame him too much) the decimate their pen and then have to face Lester in game 7. This makes perfect sense.

I like this for all the reasons you mentioned, plus... I'm hopin' they win the pennant in Tampa. Those fans deserve to see it first hand.

Or maybe Maddon's just trying to maintain some baseball interest until the World Series. He figures the Phillies close tonight with Hamels. If he finishes off his series Thursday with Shields, that means almost a full week's wait until the Fall Classic begins next Wednesday.

Just kidding. But I have to admit, this smells of too-clever-by-half. If the Rays lose Thursday, suddenly the whole series starts looking antsier. I'd do everything I could to close it out ASAP.

Tampa fans don't deserve to get a pennant. It would be great for them if they did, but the fans aren't real. I have been down there for a few games... it's barely full, they never cared if they won or lost. I actually had about 10 roided guys in black Armani t-shirts hackling myself and friends because we were wearing away team jerseys. One of the games I saw, my team lost and people were saying things like "haha, you lost to the rays!!!" which is essentially insulting your own team to insult somebody else. The team deserves to win... the fans need a reality check. They are mostly fair-weather.

Er:

Kazmir (4-4 with a 3.02 ERA in 11 starts) has been far better at Fenway than Shields (0-3, 10.12 in three starts )

Sure, it's only 3 starts from Sheilds, but that probably has much more to do with the switch than the potential game 6 close out.

The problem is that Kazmir has been looking really bad lately. 5.19 ERA in September, 6.52 in the postseason. And the numbers are no surprise from just watching Kazmir pitch. Velocity's down, location's bad, the other pitches besides the fastball aren't doing much.

I don't know, I go with my hot pitcher to close it out NOW. Shields' ERAs: 2.97 in September, 3.29 in the postseason.

From the Boston Globe:

http://tinyurl.com/4x7dgd

Another possible reason for the switch: The Rays may have wanted to avoid having Kazmir pitch with umpire Derryl Cousins behind the plate. Cousins is scheduled to call balls and strikes in Game 6, and there is a history between the umpire and Kazmir. Following a 6-2 loss to the Angels June 11 during which the Rays' lefthander questioned Cousins's strike zone, he accused the veteran umpire of making "makeup calls" in certain situations.

They're switching him because he complained about b/s calls? Hopefully it blows up - because if it doesn't then it might start a very bad trend.